Rosario DiGirolamo faces 25 years in prison but could have spent life in prison without paraole had the former computer analyst been convicted at trial. New Jersey state law requires he serve 85 percent of the sentence -- 21 years and three months -- before being eligible for parole.

Prosecutors say a June 2007 lovers' quarrel led DiGirolamo, 36, to kill Amy Giordano, 27, a native of Willowbrook, and dump her torso in the pond. Attorney Jerome Ballarotto had maintained DiGirolamo's innocence, but folded his hand on a caseworker's discovery that DiGirolamo had conducted an Internet search for "lethal" martial arts attacks "to the head" two days before the slaying.

Prosecutors allege the former computer analyst, who was having an extramarital affair with Ms. Giordano and had set her up in a Hightstown apartment, then took a saw to the corpse. He stuffed the remains in a suitcase, dumped it in Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve and later abandoned the couple's 11-month-old son in the parking lot of a Delaware hospital. Ms. Giordano's head and hands were never found.